QA BLOG

We live in an age of increasing individualism facilitated by technology that allows immediate access to information; in the format, the setting, and the time of our own choosing. This change is occurring as rapidly as we can adapt to it; accompanied by social media-facilitated feedback, commentary and communication. These are new manifestations of individual…

We are most accustomed to using (root) cause analysis in the context of incident management investigations; that by tracing the sequence of events backwards, and asking the what, how and why questions, we can determine the true cause of these events This allows us to respond in the most effective manner not only to correct…

The development of personalized medicine holds the promise of radically changing the practice of medicine from reactive to pro-active. Historically, medical treatment was initiated as a response to the symptomatic onset of diseases. And because we haven’t fully understood the genetic and environmental factors that cause diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, our efforts…

One of the inevitable experiences of managing a workforce is dealing with difficult employees. In the broadest sense we mean those who have demonstrated a lack of responsible behavior; but in a laboratory, where the continuum of work goes well beyond specimen testing (analytical) to include interaction and communication with the public (pre and post-analytical),…

One of the refrains I hear at every professional gathering is how so many of our issues would be resolved if we could just get the word out about our profession; that is, if we could just educate other healthcare professionals about our work; if we could just educate the public about how important laboratory…